Big League Stew

With MLB's new video replay system, we don't get to see too many good ol' manager tirades anymore. The whole system is designed to take confrontation out of it — so much so that if a manager even second guesses the review ruling, he's thrown out of the game immediately.

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi, bless his heart, made sure on Monday night that we got at least one great manager tirade this season. He was absolutely livid with home plate umpire Laz Diaz, getting in his face like a scorned lover on "Maury" and tossing his hat onto the ground numerous times. Girardi was just short of actual smoke coming out of his ears.

“I mentioned to Laz in a respectful way that I thought the pitch was up to Kelly Johnson earlier in the game and he gave me the Mutombo,” Girardi said, waving his index finger back and forth the way former NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo used to after a big block. “I don’t appreciate that. I’m not a little kid. I don’t need to be scolded. Obviously we’re trying to work together and I just thought there were a lot of inconsistencies tonight.”

The score was 1-1 when Girardi was tossed in the top of the eighth inning. Had he been around for the bottom of the inning, he wouldn't have been very happy either. The Angels put three runs on the board to take a 4-1 lead (the eventual final score), but didn't get a hit in the inning.

Instead, they went around the order on nothing but walks. Six walks total, one intentional. Three of them came back-to-back-to-back with the bases loaded, giving the Angels all three of their runs in the eighth.

Four of the walks were from losing pitcher Shawn Kelly, who was probably getting the Mutombo finger wave from Yankees fans after the game. Or, you know, just the finger.